Association of American Geologists and Naturalists. 251 



materials of those underlying crystalline aggregates. North of the 

 James river, the coal lies in two, and in some places in three distinct 

 seams, and is confined to the lowest hundred and fifty feet of the series ; 

 but south of that river, it forms one huge stratum, which though very 

 variable, is frequently from twenty to forty feet thick,* and what is re- 

 markable, the principal bed is separated by only a few feet, and some- 

 times by not more than a few inches, of carbonaceous shale from the 

 granitic floor. By Maclure this formation was referred to the period of 

 the old red sandstone, and more recently Mr. Richard C. Taylor assign- 

 ed it to the so called " transition carboniferous deposits ;" but my broth- 

 er having during the last three years investigated its fossil vegetation, 

 finds not only a general agreement, but a specific identity between some 

 of its forms and those of the oolite coal of Europe ; and he has there- 

 fore in a paper in our Transactions, stated that he feels " no hesitation 

 in referring the formation to a place in the oolite system on the same 

 general parallel with the carbonaceous beds of Whitby and Brora, that 

 is, in the lower part of the great oolite group." The most abundant of 

 the coal plants are the Equisetum cohwinare, a large species of Zamites, 

 a beautiful fern, TcBniopteris magnifolia, and Tceniopteris scitaminea ; 

 and the remains of these four species, occurring interlaminated with 

 the coal and immediately upon it in great profusion, appear to have fur- 

 nished the materials of the stratum. No traces of the Stigmaria Jicoi- 

 des, so universally associated with the older or palaeozoic coal, can be 

 discovered in the soft slates in contact with the coal of this formation. 

 Of animal remains, the most interesting is a small fish four or five inch- 

 es long, referred by Mr. W. C. Redfield to the genus Catopterus. 



It is perhaps worthy of remark that this genus Catopterus of Mr. 

 Redfield, Jr. contains three other species which characterize the meso- 

 zoic red sandstone deposits of both Connecticut and New Jersey, and 

 that therefore while there remains some doubt as to the existence of 

 true PalcBonisci in our American red sandstone, and consequently as to 

 any generic link between it and the Permian strata of Europe, of which 

 the genus Palceoniscus is so definitive, this red sandstone is related by 

 such a link in the genus Catopterus to a formation of the oolitic epoch. 

 Thus even as respects its ichthyolite remains, the affinities of the red 

 sandstone are obviously rather to the mesozoic than the palaeozoic rocks. 



Cretaceous Period. — But if the memorials are scanty of the early 

 and middle mesozoic periods, those of the last or cretaceous ace are 



* See Reports Geol. Survey of "Virginia ; also, Memoir in Trans, of Geol. Soci- 

 ety of Pennsylvania, by Mr. R. C. Taylor. 



